From Tsunamis, to Bullfights, to Kids & Grandkids, and Assorted Other Adventures & Misadventures - March 2011

We hated to leave Barra de Navidad, but it was time to head back north; we had places to go, things to do, and people to see! So, we left Barra on March 3, 2011, and made it back to Banderas Bay (Marina La Cruz) three days later on the morning of March 6, with overnight stops in Bahias Tenacatita and Chamela. The weather was fine, the seas benign, and we got some great sailing in during the days; but, we had some issues with the engine and prop!

About an hour out of Ten Bay (Tenacatita) the engine started smoking (gray, I guess – I thought it was whitish but Linda thought it was blacker – so, we’ll call it gray). I tried running the engine up to see if it was just carbon that needed blowing out, but that didn’t help. I went below to grab thetroubleshooting book, and while I was reading about“smoke signals” this strange, screeching and progressively louder noise started coming from somewhere low and aft; scary! Linda was on the helm and quickly shut the engine down, in gear. I was not able to get it out of gear until things cooled off; meanwhile, I checked the shaft and transmission; fluid was up and pink (not burned, like it would be with a clutch failure), and everything looked okay. By then I was able to get the transmission out of gear, so I started the engine (in neutral) and said – let’s give it a try. We eased it into gear and everything worked fine; the smoke also seemed to be gone, or at least considerably less. We ran it for a while, while I checked the temperatures of engine components, including the transmission; nothing seemed to be getting too hot. We were still about 20 miles or so from Bahia Chamela, and there was a light onshore breeze, so we decided to play it safe, and set the sails and sailed all the way into Chamela, right up until it was time to anchor (I have since learned how to drop and set the hook under sail, and will practice that sometime soon). Strange episode! Our best guess at that point was that something had wrapped around the prop, and when the engine was stopped in gear the Max Prop feathered (that is the procedure for doing so), and whatever it was fell off; I don’t know if that is what happened or not, but it does help explain the symptoms, including the smoke (engine was lugging). I dove the boat in Chamela just to make sure nothing was still on the prop, and it was clear.We left Chamela around noon the next day, Saturday, Mar 5; that would give us the travel time we needed to arrive in La Cruz just after first light on Sunday, Mar 6. We motored out of the bay with no problems, and since the onshore flow had set back in at about 10-12 knots from the W-NW, we set sail and close reached up the coast (on the same tack all day!) in beautiful, flat seas and steady winds, with lots of whales and sea turtles to keep us company, as well as about three other boats heading back to Banderas Bay. It was one of the best sailing days we have had in a long time; but, as with most thermals, it started to die off at sunset. So we stared motoring again, and as night fell (and all the way around Cabo Corrientes) the sea was flat calm and like glass – you could see the reflection of the stars and moon on the water!

Shortly after midnight, however, the engine started smoking again, only this time it was accompanied by a hollow throaty sound in the exhaust, and as the evening wore on, I was convinced there was less than normal water flow out the exhaust (but there was still a we flow). We throttled back, both for the sake of the engine, and to slow our progress so as not to arrive before sunup – about 7:30. When got to Marina La Cruz, and were given our slip assignment on Dock 11, once we were tied up I asked if we could move closer in (we were right near the breakwater, where surge is the worst, and where we were just about the farthest walk from anywhere – marina facilities and town). We were told we could move to Dock 4 -perfect! However, when we started the engine again, there was NO exhaust water flow. So, we shut her down and decided to stay put, at least until I could get the exhaust issue sorted out. After an overnight passage, we both decided that was a “mañana project.”It didn’t take me long the next day to determine it was a plugged through-hull for the engine raw water intake. During the process of diagnosing the cause of the problem, I decided it was time to replace the 1" intake hose (between the seacock and the strainer) because when I took the hose off the 90° elbow at the sea cock to see if the obstruction was there (inside the boat), the end of the hose started weeping this thick, black goo – not a good thing for a water in-take hose to be doing! I soon discovered a shortfall in my spares – lots of hose, but no 1" hose! “No problema,” I thought – there is a chandlery at the marina, next to the boat yard. So I hiked all the way over there – “No tiene.” – the only hose they had was garden hose to wash the boat; what kind of a chandlery is this? “No problema,” I thought – the boat yard works on engines (at least the signs painted over the workshop – including “Yanmar” – would lead you to think so), so surely they would have a 2½' length of 1" hose. “Lo siento. No tiene.” They referred me to Zaragosa, the West Marine equivalent in Puerto Vallarta – only a three hour round-trip bus ride away! I got on the radio (VHF is like a mini phone system down here) and called SG Boat Works, a chandlery in Paradise Village (Only a 1½ hour round trip bus ride away!) – Eureka! They had about 4' of 1" hose in stock – “Mark it ‘sold’ - I’ll be right over!”

After the new hose was installed, all the filters cleaned, and the impellor changed on the raw water pump (ugh – what a job – there is no easy way to reach that pump on our engine; but, even though I had changed the impellor before we left Banderas Bay for Barra only a month earlier, I wasn’t going to chance not having damaged the blades with the reduced water flow) – it was time to find a diver to clean out the through-hull (this was not hard –just walk down the docks anytime and you’ll find two or three of them at work). Now, if we had been at anchor somewhere, I would just gone over the side and reamed out the through-hull myself; but, there is no way I was going into the water in that marina, especially where we were – across from the fish market; there is stuff floating by sometimes that defies description! ‘Nuff said! Anyway - diver down, through hull cleaned (along with the rest of the bottom), engine started – and, after a few anxious moments while the system primed itself again – Voila! – full flow of exhaust water again! Life is good! It’s funny, sometimes, what will make a sailor happy!We then set to work on a long list of boat projects; Linda polished all the stainless (and did a great job, even though it took her a few days), and I hired somebody to wax the hull (sounded like a good division of labor to me!) Then on Friday morning, we awoke to news of the earthquake in Japan, and the tsunami warnings for the west coast of the Americas. The morning VHF cruisers net was abuzz with discussion about what to expect and when. The tsunami was predicted to hit Banderas Bay sometime after 1:00 pm. As reports came in of the amount of surge experienced in Cabo, and with the arrival time of the tsunami less than hour away, boats – including Bright Angel – started leaving the marina in a steady stream! At first we contemplated staying put – we had a large slip, and we were the only boat in it, so we could tie off on all sides with the boat well clear of the finger piers – but, as we thought more about it and talked with others, we decided the surest and safest course of action was to leave the marina; out in deep water, we would not even feel the tsunami. This decision making was complicated through the morning as reports came over the VHF that the Port Captains had closed the ports to all vessel traffic entering or leaving, with a $5,000 fine for violators; the cruisers were howling! Then they started saying that the closure applied only to commercial vessels (which made no sense); and finally, around noon, the word was no closures for anyone – get out if you want to! We left.

Out on the Bay, we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of sailing, along with hundreds of other boats, including a small flotilla of the Mexican Navy from PV; it was hard to reconcile the fun we were having with the reason we were out there. That evening, many boats headed back to their slips in Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta, as observers ashore updated reports on the strength of the currents in the harbor entrances; the Harbor Master at Paradise Village kept insisting that the marina was closed, even as boats made their way back in with what was reported to be up to 13 knots of current (reversing flow every couple of minutes!) at the breakwater entrance. Over in La Cruz, where we were moored, the Harbor Master and Port Captain both were at the marina entrance in a panga – at first, around 5:30 pm, saying it was safe to enter the marina; then, a few minutes later saying “No, wait another half hour” – then, finally, around 6:30, saying “Sorry, the currents are still too strong and erratic so the harbor is closed until morning.” Along with well over a hundred other boats we anchored in the La Cruz anchorage – actually, we were down closer to Bucerias, about 3 miles from La Cruz. We enjoyed a quiet night on the hook, even though we swung around in circles more than usual. (Some friends of ours, who were anchored in Tenacatita that night, told us they swung back and forth so much that night that, that when they went to weigh anchor the next day they had a ball of some 50-75 feet of chain wrapped around their anchor; I’m glad it wasn’t our windlass that had to haul up that mess!) The next morning we made our way back into the marina through some rather quick currents at the entrance (later that day we could still see what looked like rapids just off the breakwater!) and found that two large finger piers across the dock from our slip had been destroyed in the surge; the piers apparently had gotten hung up on the pilings as the water rushed in and out –reportedly as much a 6-8 feet in a matter of only 10 minutes or so – and had twisted and broken apart. Fortunately, there were no boats in those slips at the time. In any event, it was more than enough to justify our decision to leave the marina, even though it was nothing like what happened in Crescent City and Santa Cruz! And God bless and help the poor souls in Japan!

Our next bit of excitement came a few nights later when we returned to the boat after an evening in town to find the bilge pump running - that was enough to quicken the pulse as there is normally never any water in the bilge! After taking up the floor boards and seeing only a small amount of water in one of the higher bilges that was draining to the lower (keel) bilge – and determining (by the taste test) that it was salt water, we were somewhat relieved (that the floor boards were not awash!) but still not sure where the water was making its way in. While I checked all the through hulls and other fitting forward (upstream) of the puddle, Linda looked under the sink – and found the source of the leak! – a pin-sized hole in one of the stainless pipe fittings (custom made and factory installed) for the galley sink. So, why was it salt water, you might well ask? Well, it just confirms what I have long suspected – that the check valve (with a cleaning port that will not come off) located upstream of the sink drain discharge through-hull is “gunked” open, so salt water mixes with the fresh water in the sink drain – and, over a period of time, rusted through the stainless steel pipe that is always full of water (the boat’s water line is just below the level of the galley sinks). The other stainless sink drain pipe sprang a leak while we were in Neah Bay, and I repaired it with some Permatex Liquid Metal; so, I figured I would do the same here. Unlike the earlier repair, which was easily accessible and did not require any disassembly of the pipes, this time the hole was way in the back and required removal of the pipe to affect a decent repair. Unfortunately, when I unscrewed the ring that holds the pipe onto the bottom of the sink drain, I could not get it to screw back on– the threads were hopelessly corroded. This also meant I was not going to be able to reuse the stainless pipe, either, because the ring could not be replaced (it was placed on the vertical section of he pipe that attaches to the bottom of the drain before a 90° elbow piece was welded on. So, then the hunt was on for pieces and parts; remember the 1"raw water hose odyssey? Well, that was nothing - this was Mexican shopping at its best!

First stop was Home Depot - a mere 2 hour round-trip bus ride from La Cruz. Home Depot, I thought, would surely have a complete line of plumbing supplies; of course, I was wrong! I did manage to find a stainless sink drain kit, with fittings of dubious quality; but, no 1½" PVC 90° barbed/barbed fittings (of which I need two), and no 1½" ID hose (of which I needed about a foot). But wait – on the way from the bus stop to Home Depot we passed what looked like an auto parts store (one of those typical Mexican garage-type stores with a roll-down door) that had a hose display out front – surely they would have the hose, and possibly the hardware we needed! We’ll never know – because the store was closed – at 3:00 pm on a Saturday afternoon; was it siesta time? Back to the bus stop, and onto a bus into PV – we’re pulling out all stops now, and going to the mega-marine store, Zaragosa, I don’t care what it costs! Damn – closed! (Doesn’t anybody want my money?) We caught another bus back to La Cruz, and by the time we got there – over an hour later – it was time to head over to Philo’s for pizza and beer! (We can’t cook on the boat if we can’t wash the dishes because the sink is out of commission, right?)

The next day the stars started to align! Mike Wilson on SV Touch Rain (Olympia, WA – and parked right next to us in La Cruz!), dug two 1½" PVC 90° barbed/barbed fittings out of the dark recesses of some locker and said “Here, I don’t need these – they’re left over from some project, and I don’t even know why I brought them with me.” (Well, I do!) And Darrel Erickson on S/V El Tiburon(a beautiful Tayana 47 out of San Francisco) came by with the right size chunk of spare 1½" ID hose! (That’s why cruisers carry small chandleries in their bilges! About a week later, I was the source for a 5½" long, ⅜" diameter, threaded stainless steel bolt that Mike need for repairs to his Monitor wind vane before he and his wife Jan took off for Hawaii– what goes around comes around!) I spent the rest of the day constructing the replacement for the stainless pipe, but then when I went to put it all together with the high quality Home Depot ring fitting, the metal flange on the bottom of the fitting cracked when I tightened it down! Back to Philo’s for more cold ones, because tomorrow it would be back on the hunt for a better quality plumbing store. We eventually did find a much stouter fitting in a store in Bucerias, and all is well again under the galley sink, except I will have to get that gunked-up check valve replaced someday, along with the other custom made stainless pieces in the drain set-up, before we spring more leaks - that’s on my list of summer-time projects, which we will probably go back to San Diego to work on.

After all that running around, some of the most critical parts needed for our plumbing repair were right next door - and all the way from Olympia!

The next dose of excitement was self-induced – a trip to the bullfights at La Paloma Bullring in PV. Linda had read up on the intricacies and nuances of bullfighting (and there are many!) and decided that we had to experience this bit of traditional Mexican culture. We went with another couple, Hugh and Anne Jenings off S/V Serendipity (Port Ludlow, WA). We went to dinner and got “fortified”ahead of time (although the beer vendors were plentiful in the arena!). It turned out to be very interesting – certainly bloody, and some would say brutal – but interesting, nonetheless! With Linda’s read-ahead material (which she kindly shared with the rest of us!) it was easy to follow what was going on, and to know the difference between the good bullfights we saw, and the not-so-good ones (there were four that evening). Linda was also intrigued with the bullfighters’ colorful costumes, and their tight . . . . oh, never mind!

Next up on the agenda was the long and anxiously awaited visit from Linda’s son Matt, his wife Molly, and their two little girls, Layla, aged 4, and Faith, aged 2. Linda was so excited to see them – especially the grand girls! They flew in on Sunday, March 27, and stayed through Saturday, April 2 – Molly’s spring break (she's an elementary school teacher in Tacoma). They stayed in the Paradise Village Resort, and we had moved over on Saturday the 26th to Paradise Village Marina, literally right at their door step! The kids and grand kids had a great time! Linda and I are not really resort-type people, but this was perfect for the occasion! The grand kids loved playing in the pool, and Matt & Molly enjoyed lounging by the pool soaking up the sun and pool-side service (‘Would you care for another beer or margarita, Señor/a?’). Everyone enjoyed the beautiful beach, with all that sun, surf, and sand to play in! We went into PV one day and explored the Malecon, and a little of old town PV, before the little girls petered-out!

Bring on the sun - the Princesses have arrived!

On their last full day here, Friday, we took a trimaran tour boat to Yelapa, with a snorkeling stop enroute, and lunch on the beach at Yelapa. It was a grand – the weather was perfect, the seas were gentle, there were very few other people on the boat, the tour guides were friendly, and there was an open bar on the boat (priming for big tips!). It was a sad day on Saturday when we had to pack everybody up and head back to the airport!

After a day of R&R on our boat on Sunday, on Monday we caught the bus (well, three buses, really) to Sayulita, a beachside resort town on a beautiful bay just north of Banderas Bay, and visited with several other Olympia Yacht Club couples who were vacationing there - Deb & Gary Waldherr – MV Santorini, Christopher & Michelle Heistand – MV Van-Harper, and Dennis & Marilyn O’Connell – MV Wild Game.It’s always fun to see friendly faces from home down here in Mexico!

We had to turn-to after all that visiting, and get some work done! Matt & Molly brought all of our tax paperwork from Linda’s sister Carole on Bainbridge Island (she takes care of our mail for us), so I spent a couple of days getting our taxes done and e-filed, and then started in on boat projects – changing oil, filters, and zincs, etc., in anticipation of our upcoming trip back up the coast to Mazatlan, and then back over to the Baja and north into the Sea of Cortez. But first, we are going on a quick trip back to the States – southern CA and AZ, to renew our visas and visit family and friends, to include my son Andrew, his wife Connie, and their two little boys, Hayden, aged 5, and Austen, aged 3, in Surprise, AZ; that will have to suffice for our “Grandparent Fix” for a while, at least until this summer. We have been busy getting ready for the trip – making lists of things to buy, and ordering boat parts and having them shipped to Andrew’s place (much easier – and cheaper – than trying to find them in Mexico).